School Boards - Are the Key to Raising Academics!
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The New 3Rs Academic Transformation
The Right Systems, The Right Resources, The Right People
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Although I am ‘officially’ retired, I continue to regularly watch the televised local school board meetings. The experience can be both...
by Blaine Helwig
- Mar 6
- 9 min
Autonomy Comes with a Condition!
Several decades ago, I attended an August meeting with the associate superintendent of elementary schools in a large urban school...
85 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Feb 4
- 11 min
Academic Turn-around (MATH) - 'Do What Matters!'
There is a companion white paper to this blog that includes an executive summary. An interested educator may find that short...
122 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Nov 8, 2023
- 19 min
Responsibility and Authority – Public School Leadership
On the way back from Iowa last month – after visiting my elderly parents – my wife and I drove to Texas through Oklahoma via IH-35 south....
57 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Oct 3, 2023
- 5 min
Are You Trainable as an Educator?
Over the last four decades, I have come to realize that a myriad of qualitative evaluations are processed in real time during job...
83 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Sep 19, 2023
- 11 min
Impact of TEA's Open Education Resource - OER
In 2011, Senate Bill (SB) 6 was signed into law, and it permitted Texas school district administrators the freedom to choose their own...
186 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Jul 28, 2023
- 9 min
The Accidental Principal
My wife and I just finished walking our third ‘El Camino’ in Spain three weeks ago. There are two major walking routes that stretch from...
87 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Jul 19, 2023
- 6 min
Preventing Numeracy Gaps from Forming
Numeracy gaps and literacy gaps are the two main academic hurdles in elementary schools, especially Title 1 campuses. Moreover, the...
167 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Jul 8, 2023
- 6 min
Managing Takes Effort!
My mother-in-law has long since retired, but she cleans a small two-story concrete supplier’s office every Friday to supplement her fixed...
60 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Jun 27, 2023
- 10 min
Job Title Fallacy Syndrome
If there is one assumed professional trait in public education, it is ‘expertise.’ Now, it is rarely spouted from within the teacher...
67 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Apr 18, 2023
- 3 min
Exploring Guided Novel Instruction (GNI) Pedagogy
Learning - any type of human learning - requires consistent practice and reflection to achieve proficiency at a given task. There must...
76 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Feb 21, 2023
- 8 min
Transitioning to the Digital/On-Line Testing World
The vast majority of states have moved toward digital standardized testing. They have done this for a couple reasons. First, MONEY! It...
129 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Jan 20, 2023
- 5 min
Solving Aimless "Therapeutic" School Meetings
Most professional people I know dislike meetings of any kind. As a matter of fact, one of my engineering colleagues once philosophically...
126 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Dec 24, 2022
- 6 min
Academic Gaps - Each Teacher Can't Do It Alone!
I am not a big volleyball fan. But, throughout my life, I played a lot of different sports and activities including volleyball. Last...
175 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Dec 15, 2022
- 38 min
Math Fact Mastery - Easy to Do!
On July 20th, 1969, mankind demonstrated the ability to place men on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. This space journey is...
132 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Dec 5, 2022
- 17 min
Independent Readers - Ultimate Literacy Goal!
Beginning in third grade, every Tuesday night, my mother would load my two brothers and me in the family car and drive us to the city...
64 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Nov 17, 2022
- 8 min
Why Does Failure Continue?
I find the title of this blog interesting because as humans – I would hope that when folks perform poorly at some manageable task or...
335 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Oct 12, 2022
- 4 min
Instructional Coaches - What do they do all day?
Organizing large groups of people to efficiently complete any complex human task is challenging. In antiquity, for example, the Giza...
76 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Oct 2, 2022
- 16 min
Bilingual Acquisition – Language Learning Tips
Due to age and perspective, adults immediately recognize that the mastery of a second language is an incredibly pragmatic and useful...
51 views
by Blaine Helwig
- Sep 27, 2022
- 19 min
So, You Want To Be A Principal???
About twenty-five years ago, I was a passenger in a car returning to Austin. I was part of a three-member structural engineering team on...
77 views
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